Description

Antibodies are proteins in the immune system that help the body defend against foreign invasion, particularly from pathogens and toxins. As such, a human-engineered therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) is protein derived from the immune system through recombinant DNA technology that has the ability to combine specifically with a target protein that plays a role in a disease process. With this unique ability to specifically target diseased cells while leaving healthy cells unaffected, monoclonal antibodies can serve to diagnose and treat a wide range of medical conditions. Areas such as breast cancer therapy have benefited greatly since the advent of drugs like Herceptin (trastuzumab) that interferes with the HER2/neu receptor. Indeed, the field of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies potentially has far-reaching and paradigm-shifting implications for biology, drug discovery, and medical treatment of disease. The discipline has already yielded discoveries that have been used for drug delivery and diagnostic purposes, and other exciting new therapeutic applications. This TriMark Publications report reviews the market for medical products based on emerging therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. It defines the dollar volume of sales in the U.S. and worldwide, and it analyzes the factors that influence the size and the growth of the market segments. The study goes on to discuss in detail the trends that have developed which have stimulated this market and surveys many of the companies marketing, manufacturing or developing monoclonal antibodies therapies. Monoclonal antibodies for non-therapeutic purposes--used primarily in life science and research applications--are not discussed in this review. Moreover, antibody process technology is not covered. Special effort was made to include mention of smaller companies that are or potentially could have an impact on their industry far in excess of their current size. Each company is discussed in depth with a section on the history of the company, the product line, business and marketing analysis, and a subjective commentary of the position of the company in its market.